Kenneth Branagh: From Bard to Thor

Born and raised in Belfast, Kenneth Branagh's family moved to England when he was 9 to escape the violence of Northern Ireland. Branagh says as a boy he affected an English accent to ward off bullies. He later attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and drew notice in several television productions and stage plays, most notably in a 1984 Royal Shakespeare Company production of "Henry V," directed by Adrian Noble. Branagh is also co-founder of the Renaissance Theatre Company. His early TV credits include "Fortunes of War" and "Coming Through" (as D.H. Lawrence).

By CBSNews.com producer David Morgan

Although he made an uncredited appearance in the 1981 film "Chariots of Fire," Branagh's first feature credit was in "A Month in the Country" (1987), opposite Colin Firth. A quarter century after the film's release, the movie seemingly disappeared - various film distributors and production companies could not find a complete 35mm print or negative - until an uncut print was located at an archive in Los Angeles. Efforts are underway to have it restored and released.

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Branagh's gritty version of Shakespeare's "Henry V" (1989) put him on the world cinema map. The critically lauded film earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Director, and won him the BAFTA Award for direction.

"Henry V" also featured Emma Thompson as Catherine. The two had co-starred in a stage revival (later filmed for TV) of John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger," directed by Judi Dench. The couple (who married in 1989) also appeared on screen together in "Much Ado About Nothing," "Dead Again," and "Peter's Friends."

Kenneth Branagh in "Henry V" (1989), in the prelude to the Battle of Agincourt:

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

"Dead Again" (1991) was a psychological romance in which the relationship of private eye Mike Church (Branagh) and the mysterious Grace (Thompson) shares uncanny similarities with that of another couple in the 1940s - one of whom was executed for the murder of the other.

Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson are pictured in an undated red carpet photo.

Branagh's "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993), one of the most successful Shakespeare films at the box office, sported a delightful cast, including Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves, Michael Keaton, Robert Sean Leonard, Jimmy Yuill, Kate Beckinsale, Imelda Staunton and Emma Thompson.

Following the success of Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula," remakes of horror classics were the rage. Branagh directed the 1994 version of "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein," in which he starred as the scientist who creates a monster (Robert De Niro). It did not fare well with critics.

Branagh starred as Iago opposite Laurence Fishburne in the 1995 film version of "Othello," directed by Oliver Parker. Irene Jacob also starred as Desdemona. Branagh was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Branagh's "Hamlet" (1996) was notable for its powerful cast (which included Derek Jacobi as Claudius; Julie Christie as Gertrude; Kate Winslet as Ophelia; Rosemary Harris and Charlton Heston as the Player Queen and Player King; and John Gielgud, Gerard Depardieu, Judi Dench, Jack Lemmon, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams); its length (it used Shakespeare's complete text, as well as additional scenes and flashbacks); and its 70mm cinematography (it was the last film shot entirely in Panavision Super 70).

Branagh played a novelist-turned-celebrity journalist in Woody Allen's 1998 comedy "Celebrity." Here he is seen with some of the film's star-speckled cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio.

A John Grisham legal thriller directed by Robert Altman, "The Gingerbread Man" (1998) featured Branagh (seen here with Tom Berenger) as a divorce lawyer up to his neck in trouble.

After Branagh's divorce from Emma Thompson in 1995, he was romantically linked with actress Helena Bonham Carter, whom he directed in "Frankenstein" and also in the 1998 comedy-drama "The Theory of Flight."

The comical, steampunk big-screen version of the 1960s cult TV hit "Wild, Wild West" featured Kenneth Branagh as the dastardly Dr. Arliss Loveless.

Branagh's Shakespeare adaptations have not been strictly faithful to the Bard. In 2000's "Love's Labour's Lost," the tale of a king and three compatriots who pledge to give up women for three years in order to focus on studies - only to then meet four of the most comely young ladies - was filmed as a glamorous 1930s movie musical, with songs by Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. Pictured with Branagh are Alessandro Nivola, Alicia Silverstone, Matthew Lillard, Carmen Ejogo, Adrian Lester, Emily Mortimer, and Natascha McElhone.

Like many (if not all) of England's most highly esteemed actors, Branagh appeared in the highly successful "Harry Potter" series, playing Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in the second installment, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (2002).

In the 2001 TV movie "Conspiracy," Branagh played Reinhard Heydrich, the SS General who oversaw the 1942 Wannsee Conference, where the Nazis' finalized their plans to exterminate Europe's Jews.

"Rabbit-proof Fence" (2002) told the story of Australia's "stolen generation," and of three Aboriginal girls ordered by a government official (Branagh) to a re-education camp. It won Best Film at the Australian Film Institute Awards, and director Phillip Noyce received Best Director honors from the National Board of Review.

Another transposition of the Shakespeare canon occurred in Branagh's 2006 HBO version of "As You Like It," moving the events of the romantic comedy from medieval France to a British outpost in 19th Century Japan. The film starred Alfred Molina ("An Education"), Bryce Dallas Howard and David Oyeowo (pictured); Kevin Kline, Brian Blessed, Romola Garai and Janet McTeer. Kline won a SAG award for Best Actor in a TV Movie/Miniseries.

Director Kenneth Branagh is seen on the set of his 2007 remake of the mystery "Sleuth" with stars Michael Caine and Jude Law. Caine, who starred in the 1972 original with Laurence Olivier, played the Olivier role this time around. Harold Pinter adapted the script from Anthony Shaffer's play.

Kenneth Branagh and his wife Lindsay Brunnock attend the premiere of "Sleuth" at the Paris Theatre in New York City, October 2, 2007.

"Valykrie" (2008), the Tom Cruise starrer about a plot by Nazi officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler, featured Kenneth Branagh as Major-General Henning von Tresckow, who helped draft the failed coup.

"Pirate Radio" (a.k.a. "The Boat That Rocked") was a 2009 comedy inspired by pirate radio stations operating from boats off the English coast which specialized in rock music not then being broadcast by the BBC. Branagh played a government minister intent on shutting them down. The film also featured Emma Thompson, although she and Branagh did not appear on screen together.

"Thor" - a big-budget Hollywood action film about a god who battles apocalyptic forces - seems an unlikely directorial project for Kenneth Branagh. Yet he is quick to point out that as a child he was a fan of the comic book hero - and that it is not that great a leap from the power clashes of Norse mythology to the power plays of Shakespeare's kings. (Pictured: Branagh directs Jaimie Alexander as Sif.)

Albert L. Ortega/PictureGroup via AP Images

Kenneth Branagh attends the Marvel Studios' "Thor" and "Captain America: The First Avenger" panel at Day 3 of Comic-Con 2010 on July 24, 2010.

Photos: Comic-Con 2010